The evolution of a terrorist plot

2006: Shahed Hussain is the FBI informant in a federal case that leads to the convictions of an Albany imam and assistant imam on money-laundering charges.

June 2008: James Cromitie of Newburgh meets with Hussain at the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh. Cromitie explains that his parents live in Afghanistan and he's upset that U.S. military forces are killing Muslims there and in Pakistan. He expresses an interest in doing "something to America."

October 2008: Agents of the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force begin to monitor and record the plotters' meetings with concealed audio and video equipment.

April 10, 2009: Cromitie, David Williams and Hussain go to the Walmart in Newburgh and buy a digital camera to photograph Jewish community centers and shuls in the Bronx as targets.

April 24, 2009: Cromitie and David Williams go with Hussain to an area "immediately adjacent" to the Stewart Air National Guard Base to scout a location from which to launch a surface-to-air missile.

May 6, 2009: Cromitie, David Williams and Laguerre Payen go with Hussain to Stamford, Conn., to secure what they believe to be a guided missile system and three improvised explosive devices containing C-4 explosives and bring them back to Newburgh. The fourth defendant, Onta Williams, is not with them.

May 20, 2009: Authorities arrest the four defendants outside a synagogue in the Bronx, where Cromitie had placed explosives.

June 3, 2009: The four plead not guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the U.S. and related federal charges.

May 19, 2010: U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon refuses to dismiss the case on grounds of entrapment.